Tag: pie

San Diego County, Mary, Allied Gardens

brother’s family restaurant / allied gardens – san diego, ca

Last summer when Jake and I started going to Foster’s Freeze a lot I noticed a little restaurant across the way called Brother’s Family Restaurant. It looked like a cute little diner type place nestled in the old strip mall. This part of town reminds me of a small town with a little strip for it’s “Downtown” area. I got a group deal so we could check this place out and we visited Brother’s Family Restaurant last month for breakfast.

It was Jake, T and I for breakfast one morning and we decided to split two entrees between the three of us. Two entrees may not seem like a lot, but it was actually more than enough food for the three of us!

biscuits-n-gravy-hash-browns

[biscuits & gravy combo – $8.99]

We started with the Biscuits and Gravy Combo which came with biscuits and gravy, hash browns, 2 eggs, 2 bacon and 2 sausage links. A pretty basic start. The biscuits and gravy were just okay. I thought the gravy was a bit on the thick side and could have used a bit more flavor and seasonings – as it was, it was just very basic. The hash browns weren’t crispy enough on top for me and were slightly on the soggy side. Again – just okay.

eggs-meats

[brothers big 3 –  $9.49]

We also shared the Brother Big 3 which had: 3 eggs, 3 Grandma Jennie’s Pancakes (or 3 original pancakes) and 3 meats (ham, bacon & sausage). This one came with a sausage patty instead of a link – which I liked better than the links.

grandma-jennies-pancakes

[grandma jennie’s pancakes]

The best thing we had that day were these special recipe buttermilk pancakes. You can get “original” buttermilk or Grandma Jennie’s version which has a little bit of cornmeal in the batter. These pancakes were light, fluffy and perfectly delicious. The little bit of cornmeal in the batter made these extra good. The other items we had for breakfast were just okay and if it weren’t for these pancakes I don’t think I would enjoyed the visit all that much. Continue reading “brother’s family restaurant / allied gardens – san diego, ca”

Products, Mary, Recipes

purple sweet potato pie

Purple sweet potatoes. I’ve never seen these in the store before or really even knew of their existence until I got a bag full of them from Frieda’s Produce. With Thanksgiving on my horizon, I figured I’d try a twist on the classic sweet potato pie – replacing the normally orange colored sweet potatoes for the vibrant purple variety instead. Take my hand and let’s go on a pie-making journey!

You can see a hint of their purple color in the skins alone, but the purple color becomes a bit more pronounced once you cut and peel the sweet potatoes. It seems to be almost jewel-toned in color. These were treated the same as any other potato – wash, peel, and cover with water and set to boil.

I felt like I was a witch with a cauldron full a of bubbling boiling potion after seeing my pot of water turn purple! The whole sweet potatoes simmer and boil away for about 45 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and you can easily stick a fork through them.

Drain the freakishly festive purple water to reveal your bright purple sweet potatoes. Mash them with a masher, fork, or other implement of your choice until the sweet potatoes are nice and smooth. You’ll still see a few strings sticking up, but it should smooth out further as you weave the mixture into a magical pie filling.

Add the beautiful things – like butter, sugar, milk, vanilla and spices – to your sweet potatoes in the mixer and churn away. Let it whirl and be amazed by the color yet again.

In a partially baked pie crust, pour in your Barney-like filling and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes until the edges are a golden brown. There seems to be a lot of cooking time going around here for this one, but you’ll love the end result!

Eat a slice and hope that you don’t start singing Barney songs. Share with family and friends as they ooh and ahh over the color then pat yourself on the back for such a brilliant idea. Continue reading “purple sweet potato pie”

Multiple Locations, Mission Valley, San Diego County, Mary

beach bowls, kona pies and girly drinks at islands restaurant

I’ve been to Islands quite a few times. Those skin-on french fries they are are highly addicting. But they’ve got other stuff, too! You know burgers, whatever. And sandwiches! And tacos! And also new things, like paradise mai tai’s and chicken beach bowls.

I’ve sure you’ve been here before, too. Let’s keep this short and sweet, yes? (See emphasis on the sweet at the end…)

[Maker’s Wedge and Paradise’s Mai Tai]

Jake and I both opted to try one of their new drinks – I chose the Maker’s Wedge (right – maker’s mark, ginger liqueur, pine juice, lime and agave nectar) and he went for the Paradise’s Mai Tai (which had Bacardi rum, Myer’s Rum, lime juice with a tropical mix). There was also a drink with Jagermeister… but yeah, no, thanks. Not going there.

Someone other than our server took our orders, so the most amusing part was when our server put the mai tai in front of me and the whiskey drink in from of him.

Heh heh heh.

I teased him about his girlier drink while we waited on food to arrive.

[Islands Beach Bowl with grilled chicken]

Island’s newest Beach Bowl is chock full of veggies with your choice of either grilled chicken or mahi mahi and includes fresh grilled pineapple, red bell peppers, snow peas, water chestnuts, red onion, broccoli & diced scallions in a hoisin sauce and all of that served over brown rice. This bowl screams “I’m good for you and low in calories” (just under 576 calories) and you might just want to opt for this one after viewing the calorie intake of the burgers on their menu.

Continue reading “beach bowls, kona pies and girly drinks at islands restaurant”

Products, Mary, Recipes

banana cream pie with caramelized walnuts and grow bananas

I have a weird aversion to bananas. I think their texture is kind of weird. But I like them when they’re in stuff, so I’m not opposed to things like banana bread, or banana muffins or things like that. When I was contacted recently by a rep who offered me bananas, I thought, “Huh? Really? Bananas?”

I accepted the offer though and was able to learn more about the company behind Organics Unlimited and their program called GROW (Giving Resources and Opportunities to Workers). GROW helps fund programs for farm workers and their families in the areas where Organics Unlimited bananas are grown (in Mexico and Ecuador). These programs include scholarships, study groups, dental programs and vision exams. A portion of each purchased GROW box is donated to the GROW fund to help support these programs to bring educational and health care programs to these underdeveloped banana growing regions.

The bananas I received were from this GROW box – you can tell by the sticker placed on the bananas! GROW bananas are available at Jimbo’s Naturally stores and can sometimes be found in Sprouts, Ralphs, and OB People’s Food Store.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the bananas. So many ideas ran through my head; I got suggestions on Twitter and Facebook. Bread? Cookies? Pie? What?

I decided on making a pie. A banana cream pie. With caramelized walnuts.

Want a make a pie, too? Follow my instructions below.

Take photos of bananas in the yard.

Hope no one else is watching you take photos of bananas in the yard.

Proceed to bake a pie shell without properly tucking it into the pan.

Lament about how ugly your pie is going to look.

Sigh dramatically. Notice that no one else is around to hear you sigh dramatically. Repeat.

Make delicious vanilla custard stuff from scratch and feel slightly better about the ugly pie crust.

Slice the bananas. Think to yourself, “Organic bananas look just like regular bananas!” Laugh at self.

Decide to cut the bananas on a bias. Decide you should use the word “bias” more often.

Continue reading “banana cream pie with caramelized walnuts and grow bananas”

Mary, Recipes

frozen butterfinger pie

Need a quick and easy dessert for Fourth of July today? I got the hook up for you!

Last week I was planning on making dinner (macaroni and cheese — oh, I’ll have to post that one next week) and was asking Jake if he thought I should make dessert, too. He’s not a dessert person so he just kind of shrugged his shoulders at me. I decided it was better to ask Chris, our out of town friend, what he thought. He was much more receptive to the idea. Chris mentioned something about butterfingers and Jake then mentioned a pie, so butterfinger pie came up to the plate. See, I don’t even think of these things myself sometimes.

[The cast of characters]

This is a pretty simple no bake pie. You don’t have to freeze it – you can just leave it in the fridge – but freezing it gives it an almost ice cream like texture, perfect for a warm summer day. As you can see, you also don’t need a whole lot of ingredients to make this pie!

[Crush the vanilla wafers – bang, bang, bang!]

I decided I wanted to do this pie with vanilla wafers. You can also do an Oreo crust, graham cracker crust, or buy a premade shell. I put the wafers in a plastic bag and started to bang away on them until they were smooth crumbs.

[Melted butter and a tablespoon of sugar melds the vanilla wafers together to form a crust]

Add a tablespoon of sugar and six tablespoons of melted butter. Press it into a pie pan. I decided to bake mine for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees just to set it up a little, but you don’t really need to do that.

Continue reading “frozen butterfinger pie”

Mary, Recipes

berry crumb pie aka i think i love pie

I have been on some kind of pie making kick lately. In the last few months I’ve made a blueberry pie, 2 strawberry pies, this berry crumb pie and last weekend I made an apple strawberry pie.

Compare this to last year, where I made approximately zero pies.

I think I might love pie after all.

I really want to make mini pies now. I must experiment!

This pie makes use of the bounty of the season with fresh strawberries and blueberries. It’s summer! You should bask in the glory of summer berries!

These are some of the ingredients you need. Flour and sugar were too shy for the line up. Also: that Speculoos filled chocolate bar doesn’t go into the pie. It’s just for eating while you make the pie.

It’s there for support.

I like making the crumb topping first. Flour, sugar, cinnamon, soft butter. If you’re feeling giddy, add in some oatmeal.

You can stir this if you want, but I chose to just squish it that day. Squissssssssh.

It ends up looking a little coarse and crumbly, like this. You can also just melt the butter and stir, but what’s the fun in that?
Continue reading “berry crumb pie aka i think i love pie”